tyfló
by thelittlefanpire
Summary: All the universe is in black and white until you meet your soulmate, but as fate would have it, Clarke Griffin's soulmate is actually colorblind.
1. brown

Clarke Griffin is five years old when she sees her soulmate for the first time.

She's standing in the large mess hall on the Ark, surrounded by kids her own age and ones much older than her. She tugs on her white trousers nervously and flips her two braids behind her back. It's the first day of school and Clarke has never seen so many faces in her whole life. Her eyes dart around taking in all the pale and dark features on the faces of the children around her, and her ears try to pick up on all the sounds bouncing off of the metal walls of the space station.

"Do you see anything different?" Clarke's best friend, Wells Jaha, asks beside her, squeezing her hand in excitement. Clarke can only shake her head _no_ in response.

She squints her eyes tight together, blinks as fast as she can, and slowly closes and then opens them. But nothing changes.

"Why did they make everything so light in here? The walls and the floors match our clothes! I can't tell anyone apart! How are we supposed to know when we see them?" Clarke whispers angrily. She looks over at Wells. He's dressed in the same light shirt and trousers that she is, but his skin is dark where hers is light.

She studies his eyes that are the same shade as his skin for a moment. Then she lets out a big breath in disappointment. Even though she's known him her whole life, she was hoping her best friend was going to be her soulmate, but her universe is still black and white.

There's a commotion to her left and Clarke turns to see a group of boys roughhousing around. They have to be about ten or eleven years old. They're loud and obnoxious, and Clarke wants to roll her eyes at them, but she stops when her eyes catch onto the back of a head of dark curly hair.

The person sitting behind the rowdy group is facing away from Clarke, but their hair…

Clarke tilts her head to the side in confusion studying the curls. It reminds her of the dirt covering the roots of the last living tree. Her little fingers itch to reach out and touch the locks. To see if it matches the dirt. To see if it's as soft as the earth.

Something in the back of her mind whispers the word _brown_.

It's not that much different from the light and dark Clarke has always seen. She shakes her head and looks back at her best friend. He looks the same. And when she goes back to look at the curls they're gone. The children in the room have shifted, lining up as the teachers enter the cafeteria. Clarke stands on her tiptoes and cranes her neck to find the person with the brown curls, but she can't find them.

Wells pulls her along behind him to form a line with the other five year olds. She gives up on her search and focuses on the front of the mess hall.

"Did anyone discover any new colors today? Or maybe, meet their soulmate?" A cheerful teacher asks the room of children.

The children around her murmur excitedly. Clarke hesitates and then raises her hand with some of the other kids. Wells looks at her with shock, but she can only shrug an apology at him before she leaves him behind to line up with the other kids who saw color now, too.

A teacher leads the children out of the cafeteria and down a few hallways until they come to a stop in front of the Ark Medical Station. Clarke bumps into the boy in front of her. It's Nathan Miller, the son of one of the Ark's guards. Clarke and Wells had played with him a few times over the years. They wave to one another.

Clarke then notices Nathan is holding hands with a small Asian boy, who looks like he could be from Farm Station. She waits patiently behind them, hoping to get a glimpse of her busy mother.

"Where's your soulmate?" Nathan turns around and asks her. Clarke is the last one in line and she hadn't noticed that most of the other kids were all paired up.

"I think I saw them, but then I lost them," Clarke tries to explain. Nathan and his soulmate look at her like she's a little crazy, but they don't have time to respond before Clarke gets distracted by her mother's appearance in the next room over.

Abby Griffin is dressed in her Ark Medic scrubs and her hair is falling around her face. Clarke knows this means she must have just come out of surgery. She straightens her back and waves at her mother through the glass. Abby's face lights up in surprise at her daughter and waves back before disappearing into a patient's room.

The line moves quickly and before long, Clarke is the last kid to be taken back into a small dark room. She tells the teacher how she could see brown now and the teacher looks at her curiously before writing it down on a clipboard. She leaves Clarke alone in the room.

The walls are covered in Eye Charts and other posters and there's a glass cabinet full of eye drops and eye instruments. In the middle of the room sits a chair under a large phoropter with more lenses than Clarke can count.

It's all very frightening for a five year old, but Clarke looks around curiously until her eyes land on the color scale chart covering the far wall.

From ceiling to floor, the scale stretches from one side of the room to the other. To Clarke it's just a gradient of grays and she runs her hand along it. She falters at a strip of color the width of her pinky finger.

 _It's brown_.

"According to Greek mythology," Clarke jumps and turns her head abruptly at the voice of her mother as Abby enters the room with a clipboard in her hand and a young woman in glasses follows in behind her, shutting the door. Abby continues reading from a paper attached to the clipboard, "humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves. Plato."

The woman in glasses pulls down the phoropter and clicks the lenses in place before pulling out a set of eye drops from the glass cabinet and setting them down on the counter.

"But the gods were unsatisfied when humans ignored their curse and stopped searching for their soulmates. So Zeus had Iris destroy our ability to see color until we met our other halves forcing us to search them out. Even after the world ended and the gods were forgotten, up here in space we see in black and white until we meet our soulmate. Commander Cole McAdams."

Abby sits down the clipboard and looks up at her daughter with a tight smile on her face. Clarke fidgets with one of her braids under her mother's gaze. She knew the story of soulmates well and understood that her world of black and white wasn't meant to last forever.

"Hello, Clarke. I'm Dr. Glass. I'm going to be evaluating your eyes to make sure you can see color, okay?"

Clarke nods her head _yes_ at the doctor and glances at her mother nervously.

"Some children your age can get confused and overwhelmed. We just want to make sure you can see clearly now."

"What color are my eyes, Clarke?" Abby asks her. Clarke looks up at her mother and then back at the color chart. Her hand still rests on the strip of brown, but Abby's eyes don't match up to it. Clarke has no idea what color they her mother's eyes are and begins to doubt herself.

Abby lets out a big sigh and shakes her head.

"It's like you said," Dr. Glass directs at Abby. "I can run a few tests, but it won't matter if she's lying. Clarke, did you meet your soulmate today?" Dr. Glass asks.

"I thought I saw them, but then I lost them," Clarke says sadly. She can feel the sting of tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.

"It's okay, baby. You must have heard some of the other kids talking about colors. But it doesn't work like that. You have to meet your soulmate face-to-face for you to see any kind of color." Abby squeezes Clarke's arm and looks apologetically at the other doctor.

Dr. Glass puts away her eye drops and Abby takes her daughter back to the classrooms on the Go-Sci Ring. Wells and the other kids are busy at their desks. They look up when Clarke enters and Wells gives her a big smile. She sits down beside him and opens her box of crayons. She tries to ignore Abby whispers with her teacher and the stares from Nathan and his soulmate.

She looks down at the fresh crayons in her box with shades of gray and the blank paper on her desk.

"Can you show me the brown one?" Clarke whispers politely to Nathan. She hands him the box and he pulls out the right crayon for her.

Her hand hovers over the paper carefully. Zeus may have split her apart from her soulmate and Iris may have taken away her full view of the world, but she knew what she saw. Her soulmate was out there, on the Ark with her, floating out in space above the dead Earth. Clarke places the tip of the crayon on the paper and draws the loop of a brown curl she'll spend the next twelve years searching for.


	2. a kaleidoscope of

It's much harder than Clarke imagines, finding her soulmate. Ninety-seven years later, after the nuclear bombs destroyed the Earth, there were only twenty-five hundred known humans left on the Ark. And the combined twelve space stations were only so big. Most people met their soulmate when they were young, like on the first day of school or in the next years following. It was rare for them to be delayed because of a difference in age or if they were from a different Station on the Ark. It was even more rare for a person not to have a soulmate all together, but Clarke doesn't like to think about that possibility.

Wells eventually meets Sasha. Nathan has Monty. Even Raven Reyes found her other half in Finn Collins, a total jerk, in Clarke's honest opinion. But Clarke, at almost seventeen, was still without her soulmate.

She knew they were out there. She can still see the color of their brown curls every Unity Day in the dirt around the last living tree. Sometimes she sees it in the rust of the Ark's old nuts and bolts, or in the special chocolate her parents give her on her birthday.

She's covered up to her elbows in the color now and stares up at a coated canvas. Clarke had moved on from crayons in kindergarten to finger paints to watercolors and finally to the paints that she had mixed together herself. Always searching for the only color she could see in her dull colorless world.

The canvas, like the walls of her room around her, is completely filled with brown. Earth and her trees, her mother's piercing eyes, and that head of dark curls.

Clarke stands back to admire her work when a knock sounds on the door and her mother comes into the room carrying a heavy garment bag.

"Oh, good. You got done early at the clinic, too?" Abby asks and sets the bag up on the back of the gray door. She ignores the brown canvas. After years of Clarke trying to convince others around her that she could see a shade of brown, Abby had let her be. It was just unheard of, but Clarke's insistence was persistent.

"Yeah, Jackson let me go so I could get ready for tonight. What's that?"

"Your dress." Abby smiles brightly at her and then unzips the bag, dramatically, revealing a dark black dress. It's richer than anything the Griffins' own. Clarke wipes her hand on a cloth, leaving the brown behind, so she can touch the fabric. It's made of silk and tulle.

"Where did this come from?" Clarke asks bewildered.

"I've been saving it. They had these dances before we were on the Ark, you know? And it matches your eyes!"

Clarke's fingers still on the soft fabric.

"What color is it?"

"It's a dark purple, like a plum," Abby tries to explain and Clarke is even more in awe of the dress now. She tries to picture it and closes her eyes as her mother describes it for her, "It's warm like your brown, but fuller and richer. Think royalty and kings. Or think of the fading light in the sky on earth. A bruise. A heartbeat. A-a…"

"It sounds beautiful," Clarke says cutting her mother's explanation off.

"It's going to make your eyes pop! Iris would have had to have made your soulmate blind not to see you tonight."

Clarke laughs along with her mother at that joke, but can't help but feel nervous at the same time.

The Council was throwing a masquerade dance on Unity Day in honor of Iris in hopes for the few unpaired young adults that remained to finally meet their better halves. The butterflies soar around in her stomach at the thought of finally meeting her soulmate. Everyone on the Ark would be there. Everyone would be decked out in their finest colorful clothing.

Clarke steps into the plum dress letting her mother zip her up. It's tight, holding all of her insides together, so she can barely breathe. She runs her fingers over the silk at her waist.

"You look beautiful," Abby murmurs tears filling her eyes. She holds up a small mirror for Clarke to see herself in.

Her hair is still entwined in the thick braid she had thread it in that morning with tiny trindles falling around her face. The dress looks stunning on her, but she wishes she could see her blue eyes. They look dull and gray in the reflection of the mirror, like the murky water she dips her paintbrushes in.

Not letting herself be brought down, she straightens up and smiles at her mother.

"Thank you. I love it."

"You're welcome, baby. Now, get out of here and go have fun." Abby gives Clarke a tight squeeze and helps her into her shoes before pushing her out the door to go meet Wells.

He's waiting for her in the rotunda.

Clarke bursts out with laughter when she lays eyes on him. His shirt and pants are a mismatch of patterns. Polka dots on his sleeves and stripes on his chest. His pants are a swirl of flowers and designs.

"Stop laughing! You're not getting the whole effect. This is an incredible outfit," Wells says. She tickles his side and he takes her hand to spin her around.

"I may not be able to see the colors, but I'm not blind!" Clarke says breathlessly from the spin.

"Okay, so you're seeing the full effect in the shirt. It's black and white. But the pants...well, the pants are sex and lust."

"Nice. Spending time with Sasha before you got here?" Clarke smirks at her best friend and guesses the color of his pants, "Red."

"Gah, you're too good. The jacket matches your eyes!" He blurts out and picks his jacket up off of an exposed pipe on the wall behind him.

"Too easy. And I hope you're not being serious because that combination sounds ridiculous."

Bright blue with dark red. Clarke is thankful she can't see Wells' outfit clearly.

"It's not the worst thing we'll see tonight."

Clarke doesn't respond. She places her arm in his when he offers it to her and they walk down the halls of Alpha Station silently. The walls around them are smooth and gray. It's calming to walk through. To know the color around her.

"Are you nervous?" Wells asks her after a few moments.

"Of what? Dancing in front of the whole Ark in a room filled with colors I can't see?" Clarke jokes.

"To finally meet them."

"I think I'm more nervous that I won't," Clarke admits. They stop in the hallway and Wells looks at her with sympathy in his dark eyes. She looks away from him not wanting to get emotional before she enters the next room.

When she glances around, she notices the string of lights leading into the Ark Ballroom. There are ribbons and banners that lead inside as well, and they cause her feet to move involuntarily, curious with what else could lay inside the entrance. Wells follows behind her. He's in even more of a trance than she is.

The room is lined with plush drapes to cover up the metal walls making the room feel fancier than it is. There are streamers hanging from the ceiling. Crystal glass balls reflect the light on the tables. And the room is filled with people. Even in gray it's dizzying. The decorations glitter and shine all around her. The Arkadians dazzle in their fancy clothes and bright smiles.

"It's a kaleidoscope of—"

"Hush. I can wait to see it all for myself." Clarke says throwing a hand up to stop Wells. It lingers in the air as she remains mesmerized by the sight before her.

They take in the room, until the voices of their friends draw them from their stupor.

Sasha is calling for Wells on the dance floor. Her dress sparkles under the chandelier shooting off colors Clarke can't even begin to comprehend. Nate and Monty are posted up by the drink bar with Monty's best friend, Jasper. They're laughing as they spike the punch with Moonshine. Jasper hasn't met his soulmate yet either, so the three boys are playing a game of _Guess the Color_. The crowd provides a game that's never ending for them.

All of the Ark seems to be here. Her friends from school, and ones who had recently graduated, a few parents, some teachers, and the Council.

Clarke joins Wells and Sasha out on the dance floor and they dance the night away.

Wells twirls his best friend and his girl around. It's always been easy for the three of them. Since Wells had met his soulmate in the first grade, when Sasha had switched into their class, and they automatically made room for her at their table. Clarke remembers the look on Wells face. It's the same look he's giving her now. Like she holds all the secrets to the universe. And then the music slows down and Clarke remembers that as they grew older it was getting harder for her not to feel like a third wheel. She bows out so that they can slow dance together.

As she exits the dance floor she searches around the room for a familiar face. Her eyes flit around but she can't find anyone she knows, so she goes over to the window that looks over the earth. It is a swirl of white and grays. She traces the patterns of the clouds with her finger on the glass. Then the Ark rotates a little to the left and Clarke is suddenly blinded by the bright light of a sun flare.

An alarm system begins to sound and a woman's voice chimes out over the P.A. system.

"Solar Flare Alert."

Clarke shields her eyes and turns away from the window. She blinks rapidly to clear her eyes. Black dots fill her vision.

"An X-class solar flare has begun on the Starboard side of the Ark. All citizens must report to the nearest shelter site immediately. This is not a test. This is a solar flare alert."

The alarm continues to sound and some of the people in the room groan loudly when the Ark guards enter. The music stops.

"Looks like the party is over," Jasper grumbles. Clarke can hear him from across the room.

"Ladies and gentleman, you know the drill. I.D.s out," a guard calls. The other guards began to scan I.D.s and Clarke pulls up the sleeve of her dress to reveal hers.

There's a guard beside her, but it's not his uniform that alerts her to his presence or the shock baton he has out as he crouches over a small girl, but the _brown_ curls on the crown of his head.

"I'll create a distraction," his gruff voice whispers to the girl he's shielding with his body.

There's a desperation to his voice and the baton at his side hums to life.

"Bell, I'm scared. How do I get home?" Clarke tears her eyes away from his head to look at the girl speaking to him. She looks terrified.

Clarke's mind races to figure out what's happening before her, when an older guard makes his way towards them. She feels the tension rolling off of the guard beside her. So she does the one thing that will cause the biggest distraction for them.

"Hi! I think you're my soulmate!" Clarke jumps in between the two guards and faces the younger one.

As soon as their eyes meet Clarke's world bursts into color.

The brown curls on her soulmate's head compliment his intense brown eyes nicely. She can see her blue ones reflecting off of them. The wide bridge of his nose is dotted in freckles. He has a scar on his forehead and one above his lip. And his lips are full and pink, pursed in a tight line, obviously in annoyance. Clarke smiles at the dimple in his chin.

She catalogues his features all the while her peripherals are catching on the colors around her. The red plush drapes on the walls, the golden silverware that lay on top of pink blush tablecloths, the checkered array of orange in a fruit basket, and the hanging purple and green streamers. Her mind doesn't even have names for the colors flying around the room from the lights bouncing off of the chandelier.

Her declaration of a soulmate is heard around the room and the cheers and congratulations go up in the air. The sounds are deafening in her ears. The colors are overwhelming. Clarke's head begins to feel light and then her knees go weak. All of the colors swirling around her go dark in her mind as she passes out.

She's unaware of the voices and bodies around her, but they carry over into her subconscious.

" _Watch out, Blake," a guard's voice shouts._

" _Catch her, Bell!"_

 _Before her body can hit the floor, strong warm hands wrap around her torso and she's swept off of her feet._

" _Thanks for the distraction," a voice close to her ear whispers and then says much louder, "I'll take the girl to Medical."_

But Clarke doesn't wake up in Medical.


	3. princess

Clarke comes to in a small room in quarters that are unfamiliar to her. The walls and floor are gray like the blanket she was resting her head on. She sits up in a panic as memories flood her mind. The dance. The solar flare. _Her soulmate._

Her eyes land on a sewing kit with red thread spilling out of it on the floor, a blue uniform hanging up on the back of a door, and then a stack of brown books by the bed. Clarke sighs. She could still see color.

"How do you feel?" a low voice sounds in the empty room. Clarke looks up to see her soulmate standing in the doorframe. His broad shoulders barely fit in the door and his curls brush the top of the frame.

Clarke tries to swallow but her mouth is dry. Her fingers go up to rub her temple where her head is throbbing.

"I'm fine. How long was I out?"

"Ten minutes."

"Why did you bring me here? Where are we?" Clarke looks around the small room. Beside the few items she had seen, there were two bunks made into the walls, and not much else in the space.

"We're in Farm Station," he says and she notices the abbreviation of the Station written on the back of a door.

"The halls were crowded from the Solar Flare Alert but I can take you to Medical if you feel like you need to go."

"I'm fine," Clarke says and goes to jump down from the bunk, but her legs are still weak.

Her soulmate rushes into the room to catch her again. His arms slide around her waist and he helps her into the main living quarters. He pulls out a chair for her to sit down in. He doesn't sit himself, but stands with his arms folded assessing her from across the room.

"I thought you were just helping us create a distraction, not blacking out for real."

"I saw your brown hair so I knew it was you. I didn't exactly plan on passing out, you know," Clarke says staring up at him and then glancing around the room quickly. No one else was there with them.

"You knew it was me?"

"Yeah, you're my soulmate," Clarke says and slowly gets up from her chair and reaches her hand out, "I'm Clarke Griffin."

Her soulmate doesn't uncross his arms to shake her hand.

"Princess of the Ark," he says with surprise. "Well, Princess, my name is Bellamy Blake. But you are not my soulmate."

"W-what?" Clarke falters at his words as her hand falls at her side.

"What color are my eyes?" Bellamy asks her.

"Brown," she answers automatically.

"What color are my eyes?" a female voice says and the girl from earlier pops up from under the floor. Clarke slides her chair back in fright and yelps in surprise. The girl climbs out of a hole in the floor and Bellamy reaches down to pull her up with one hand and pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration with the other.

"I told you to wait until we left, O."

The girl stands in front of Clarke waiting on a response. Her hair is long and brown, but not curly. Her face doesn't hold any freckles, but the similarities are hard to miss.

"Are you brother and sister?" Clarke whispers looking between the two. The realization is shocking. The Ark had a strict one-child only policy, but tonight's events were beginning to click into place and make sense to her.

"What color is this?" The girl holds up a stuffed animal.

"It's gray," Clarke says absentmindedly still in shock from the revelation, though no one else in the room confirms or denies it.

"You're lying. Mom always says it's slate blue."

"Slate is like a grayish color. Like a storm cloud. Or mountain rock. And your eyes are blue green."

"Mom always—"

"Hazel," Clarke cuts her off.

"That's enough, Octavia," Bellamy says firmly. His sister huffs and places her hands on her hips but doesn't say anything more.

Clarke is fascinated by them. And her eyes bounce back and forth watching their interaction.

"I'm not your soulmate," Bellamy tells her again. She stares at him.

"Yes, you are. I can see color now. Can't you?"

"No, I can't!" Bellamy says his voice louder than he means it to be. He finally takes a seat at the table and props his elbows up on the metal and folds his hands together. His face is unreadable as Clarke searches it for some sign that he's lying.

He doesn't meet her eyes and she shivers suddenly becoming aware of how over-dressed she is in the room. Her plum dress looks like a blemish surrounded by all the gray around her. She runs her hands up and down her arms.

"Here," Octavia says handing her an oversized gray sweater out of nowhere. The elbows are worn thin and there are holes in the sleeves, but at least she'll be warm. Clarke thanks her and wraps the sweater around herself.

She pulls her chair back to the table, close to Bellamy, and sits down.

"I first saw you when I was five. Just the back of your head. I've been searching for you ever since," Clarke tries to explain.

"And you saw the color of his hair? I didn't think it worked like that," Octavia says and joins them at the table.

"Neither did my mom or the eye doctor, but I could see it," Clarke says and shrugs at Octavia.

Bellamy doesn't speak, so Clarke changes the subject back to them.

"How old are you?" she asks Octavia.

"Sixteen."

"Wow. And your parents have managed to keep you hidden all this time?"

"It's just us and our mom," Bellamy speaks this time. His face is soft as he looks over at his sister.

"My mother never had a soulmate either. She fell in love with a few different men through the years. Had me. Had Octavia. I joined the guard so I could help protect her."

"Bell thought everyone would be distracted enough tonight that I could just blend in," Octavia chimes in rolling her eyes.

"I shouldn't have taken you. It was reckless," Bellamy grumbles.

"You can't keep her hidden forever."

"I have to. They'll float us all if the Council finds out about her."

Clarke looks over at Octavia who says nothing. Her eyes are lowered. The conversation doesn't appear to be anything new to the girl.

"How will she meet her soulmate though?" Clarke asks. It's a childish thing to say and Bellamy scoffs at her.

"I hate to break it to you, Princess, but soulmates aren't all they're cracked up to be. Look at us."

Clarke can't help but smile a little at his words. His acknowledgment that they're soulmates even if he still can't see color.

"I can help you hide her," Clarke offers.

An alarm sounds before Bellamy can answer and the P.A. system blares into the quiet room.

"Solar Flare Alert. Remain in your safe zone. There is a Solar Flare Alert."

As soon as the alarm stops ringing, there's a loud knock on the door and Bellamy and Octavia spring into action.

"Inspection. Open up, Cadet Blake."

"An inspection during a solar flare? We're safe in the living quarters. Why would the guards even come here?" Clarke asks in confusion as she watches Bellamy open the latch to the secret space for Octavia. Octavia grabs her bunny from the table and jumps down.

As Bellamy shuts the hatch he motions for Clarke to tuck in Octavia's chair. Clarke is surprised by the random guest, but Bellamy isn't.

"Shumway was at the dance and saw us. I guess now's a good time to help me hide my sister. You ready?"

She looks at him with wide eyes and tries to nod, but he's already opening the door before she can compose herself.

"Lieutenant Shumway. Come in. Do you need any help out there with the Solar Flare?" Bellamy's face is once again unreadable, but Clarke can see his fingers twist around each other behind his back.

"Blake. I just wanted to check up on you and your...soulmate." The way the Lieutenant strides into the room, Clarke knows he's not expecting to find her and when his eyes land on her she transforms her face into a delighted smile and bright eyes.

"Hello," Clarke waves at him.

"Miss Griffin, how are you feeling?"

"A little light headed. I think I may have caught a glimpse of the solar flare before the alert went out. Do you think we could get someone to page Dr. Glass? I know it's late, but…" her voice trails off.

Bellamy looks at her with astonishment. Like maybe he doesn't need to see in color for him to believe Clarke his is soulmate. Her ability to cover for him is so natural.

"I can escort you there," Shumway nods. Fake inspection forgotten as he turns out of the room.

Bellamy grabs his coat and Clarke follows behind the two men shutting the door firmly behind her and leaving Octavia under the floor.

Out in the hallway, Bellamy convinces Shumway they're okay to head down to Medical on their own. And Shumway promises to page the eye doctor.

"Thanks," Bellamy says to her when they're the only ones left in the hallway. It's late and the lights are dim. The width of the hallway feels smaller walking beside Bellamy. The presence of him beside her feeling larger now that they're alone.

"No problem," Clarke waves him off and her hand brushes his forearm. His skin is hot under her touch like energy crackling to life. Like a moth to the flame she wants to touch him again so she steps closer to his side letting her arm graze his as they walk.

"I'm really glad I finally met you," she says and bumps his arm. He bumps her arm back and smiles down at her.

"How does it feel? To finally see color?"

"It's amazing. It's not like anything anyone ever describes. The colors are alive and they have this dimension to them," Clarke explains and waves her hands in front of her.

"Wish I could see it," Bellamy sighs. Clarke looks at him sadly.

"It's not all that different," Clarke backtracks as they walk along the gray halls. "The Ark is pretty dull. But I can only imagine how it must have felt on Earth. All the colors everywhere you looked."

"You would probably die of a heart attack," Bellamy laughs loudly. His voice echoes down the empty hall as they approach the Ark Medic Station.

"I'm sure you'd bring me back to life though."

"You're my soulmate. I'd cross the River Styx and back to bring you back from the Underworld."

"Big mythology fan?" Clarke asks remembering the books in his quarters.

"Yeah," Bellamy says ducking his head, "My mom read them to me and I read them to Octavia. The Iliad. Ovid."

"What does she do?"

"She's a seamstress." Bellamy places his hands in his pockets and they slow their steps.

"How does she do that without a soulmate?"

Bellamy looks at her with a mix of contempt and surprise on his face. He didn't seem as obsessed with soulmates as Clarke was. And he definitely didn't hold the position with high regard.

"I mean, how does she do that if she can't see the colors?"

"She has a pretty space-tight system. Where the colors go. What uniform needs what. People live their whole lives without a soulmate, you know?"

Clarke knew it was possible, but it was unheard of her. Everyone she knew had a soulmate. She had grown up with the belief that she would find hers one day. The promise of Iris' curse had always ended with hope.


	4. blue

Dr. Glass is waiting for them in the lobby of the Medic Station. Her glasses are askew on her face and her hair is messy from sleep. Clarke doesn't even want to know how late the hour is for the doctor to look so disheveled. It had to be early in the morning, pushing towards dawn by now.

"We're so sorry to wake you, ma'am," Bellamy apologizes but the doctor just waves her hand, brushing them off, and ushers them inside her office.

"Not a problem. It's almost morning anyway."

She pulls down the phoropter and the lenses snap into place. Clarke thinks back to the last time she was in this room. Not much had changed. Except now, she could see all the colors. The color chart was a rainbow with every color imaginable fading from black to white. Every red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet shade on the spectrum. Clarke can't take her eyes off of it.

"Looks like someone finally met her soulmate," Dr. Glass says knowingly. Her smile is warm and kind.

"Finally," Clarke responds. She sits down in the chair and Bellamy crosses his arm leaning against a wall to watch.

"Can you see all the colors on the chart?"

"Yes."

"What is this one?" Dr. Glass points at a thin strip of purple. Clarke tells her the color and then the doctor points around the chart until she's satisfied.

"I got a ping for a solar flare exposure. How do you feel?"

"I have a little bit of a headache," Clarke admits and the doctor looks through the lenses of the phoropter at her eyes.

"Your eyes look okay to me. No permanent side effects. You might see some black spots today so just avoid looking directly at any bright lights." She finishes checking Clarke's eyes and then motions for Bellamy to come and sit.

"I-I didn't see any solar flares. I'm fine," he resists not wanting to sit down in the chair.

"You're her soulmate, aren't you? I just want to take a look," the doctor beckons him to sit with her hand. He does reluctantly.

"Can you tell me this color?" she points at a shade of green.

"I can't, ma'am. I still see in black and white," Bellamy tell her.

"Oh, how strange," the doctor says looking between the two of the them curiously. She rifles through her cabinet moving the eyes drops out of the way and pulls out a thick white notebook.

She flips open a page and holds it up for Bellamy. It's faded and yellow from age. Clarke can see a circle of greens encasing a red number eight.

"What number do you see?"

"Eight," Bellamy answers quickly.

"And this one?"

"Fourteen...or nine?" Bellamy asks with uncertainty. Clarke can see the nine from her position but doesn't say anything.

The doctor flips through the book and Bellamy guesses some more. Some answers correct and some not. When they're finished she puts the book away and pulls a tray of colored tiles out. Four rows. Four different shades of colors.

"Can you place these in increasing color hue for me?" she asks patiently. Bellamy can only stare at her in confusion. The darker colors are easy to tell from the lighter ones, but he misplaces the colors. He places the dark reds with the dark greens and runs out of room in the first row.

"Okay. Thank you," Dr. Glass puts the tray away and swipes through something on her tablet.

Clarke looks at Bellamy nervously. Clarke saw black and white when her eyes met his, but his didn't. Could they really be soulmates then?

"Bellamy Blake, you're colorblind," the woman says proudly looking up from her tablet and pushes her glasses up on her nose.

"So what does that mean?" Bellamy asks her and Clarke holds her breath for the answer.

"It means...Clarke is most certainly your soulmate but you won't ever be able to see color traditionally."

"He's my soulmate!"

"Traditionally?"

Bellamy and Clarke speak at the same time. Clarke lets the relief wash over her. But Bellamy still looks confused.

"You have a special type of vision that can't differentiate between the colors red and green. And blue and yellow. The photopigments in your eyes are abnormal. It's a condition I've been studying for ages. In my studies, it's surprising how many people through history were colorblind."

She goes on to explain more and then asks Bellamy and Clarke to wait outside her office. They sit down on the hard plastic chairs together.

Bellamy sits in mild shock beside her and Clarke can feel the emotions coming off of him. There was more to soulmates than seeing in color.

She pulls at his arm resting on his leg gingerly, lifts it up, and lays her head down in his lap. His hand rests gently on her shoulder.

"I thought the Universe was cruel for letting me see one color, but not all of them. But maybe that's why I could see the brown of your hair without meeting you face-to-face. The Universe knew you couldn't see color at all."

Clarke looks up at him. The blue of his guard's uniform reminds her of midnight, his brown curls like the dirt of the last living tree, and his freckles are like tiny stars cut out from the galaxy. Clarke wants to describe it all to him. To be his eyes.

"My mom never had a soulmate. Octavia will never get one. The Universe is cruel."

When he says that, she thinks maybe she has it backwards. She thinks of his sister hidden under the floor, his mother's carefully coded thread, and his unwavering conviction to protect his family. Maybe he can teach her a thing or two about seeing the world in black and white.

Dr. Glass finally comes out of her office. She's carrying a pair of glasses delicately in her hands. The frames are thick with black rims. But the lenses aren't clear like normal glasses. They have a colored tint to them.

"I'm not sure if this will work, but I think it will help you." She hands the glasses to Bellamy.

Clarke sits up and faces him. He slides them in place and Clarke gives him a moment to look around. His eyes search out the colors landing on the doctor's green Medic scrubs, the tan cloth on a sofa, the warm yellow of the lightbulb above them, the shiny silver metal of the chair under his fingertips, and to Clarke's face. Clarke is unsure what he sees.

"What color are my eyes?" she asks him.

"Blue," he says.

thanks for reading! let me know your thoughts and favorite lines!


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